Mediafed acquires news DJ company Taptu to expand its RSS ad empire

Taptu, creator of mobile apps that let you “DJ” your news, has been acquired by RSS advertising firm Mediafed, the companies announced today.

The union of the UK-based companies will allow Mediafed to expand its RSS monetization platform on mobile, after finding success with RSS ads on the desktop. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but we imagine it was well above Taptu’s $20 million in funding.

“[The acquisition] came about as kind of an opportunity, we’ve been working with Mediafed, and they have a fantastic tech platform,” said Taptu CEO Mitch Lazar in an interview with VentureBeat. He added that Mediafed has also been effective at building relationships with publishers — it counts major names like The New York Times and The Guardian among the 1,200-plus publishers on its platform.

Mediafed touts itself as the first company to make a major business around RSS. The company powers ads on news feeds from more than 125 million consumers around the globe, 50 million of which are on mobile (up from 20 million just three months ago).

Taptu fans shouldn’t worry about the company’s mobile news readers disappearing. Mediafed CEO Ashley Harrison said in an interview that his company is going to keep the Taptu brand and will continue to develop its apps. This week, Mediafed is going to debut Chinese, Italian, and Russian versions of the Taptu app.

While Mediafed isn’t a major name in the U.S. just yet, primarily because the company has focused on BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) first, helping Mediafed to expand its U.S. presence was one of the things that attracted Taptu investor DFJ Esprit to the acquisition, DFJ partner Krishna Visvanathan told VentureBeat.

Mediafed got its start with $450,000 in funding from angel investors, but it hasn’t pursued additional funding since it has been profitable since its first day.